WE DON'T BUY SUCCESS, WE BREED IT

To ensure that a club has every opportunity to compete with best in the Premier League, money has to be spent. Southampton FC has just invested £33 million in a brand new training ground, opened by owner Katharina Liebherr and Chairman Ralph Kreuger. The new timber clad building is named after Marcus Liebherr, a Swiss business man, who bought the club in July 2009, after Southampton's relegation to League One and a 10 point deduction for entering administration. Since then it has been an upward journey for the Saints. Portakabins at their training ground have been replaced by a precision designed swimming pool, there is a room dedicated to analytics and recruitment, a pitch designed to be the replica of St Mary's ground, a “black box” room giving the backroom staff direct IT contact with any footballing footage in the world, enabling the club to view opposition, individual players and potential signings. No stone is left unturned. There is a massage room with mood lighting and a huge laundry with machines fed by pure oxygen.

This scientific approach to training and conditioning, practised in the club over recent years, has minimised injuries and made players fitter. So successful has this approach been that other clubs are following it's model, which has even been copied by FC Barcelona.

Les Reed, once a coach working for the FA, but for some time now a member of the club's staff, is executive director of football. He says that when potential youngsters are signed on, even at only 9 years old, they buy into the Southampton FC scheme.

Ron Koeman was targetted once Southampton lost their last manager to Spurs and he has brought in two players already identified by Southampton's scouting team, so there is no loss of continuity and no major changes at the top. Mo Gimpel, the club's sports and medicine manager, has been at the club for 16 years and never before has he had such equipment to enable him and his staff to monitor every individual, using GPS, urine sampling and blood tests, measuring immunity, as well as physical and psychological stress. Southampton can field strong teams in both league and cup competitions, maintaining their continuity on the field without losing key players to injury. The club has the lowest soft tissue injuries in the league, the first team has been top of the ProZone stats for the past two seasons and this all contributes to the success and position of the Saints in the Premier League.

After losing a host of great players this summer and of course Walcott, Oxlade and Bale before, it is a wonder that the Saints are flying high. Recent pundits have made excuses for the downfall of Liverpool or Manchester United, some reckon that the whole affair is largely based on luck; the run of the ball, ref's decisions, freak injuries; is it luck or an attention to detail, that ensures success in our Premier league?

The Dream Factory will inspire those youngsters who are lucky enough to set foot onto the shop floor ?